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Electronic Load

Hardware

By @IndexJson

  • 2 Devlogs
  • 2 Total hours

Electronic Load is just a *magic box* that converts electricity into heat. Could say a heater designed as lab equipment. The goal of this project is to create a 2kW dummy load. And it's a LOT of power. As a comparison I can say, that my space heater is 2kW. In this project cooling is one of the most important things and what makes it special. I decided to use water cooling! This way the mosfets will stay cool and the load will work just fine.

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@IndexJson on Electronic Load

1h 30m logged

Devlog #01

Overview

So MCU board schematic is done. Nothing too crazy, but there are a few interesting things.

Fan connectors

I put 4 connectors for fans. Why? Well, I may not need that many but they might come in useful. I need 1 connector for a pump and 1 for aio fans. Maybe I’ll use 3rd one for chassis fan and 1 will be as a spare.

There isn’t a lot more to say about it. After all its just a PCB with an MCU just like any other. The difference between this one and any other lets say nucleo board is just in special connectors, eeprom and temperature sensor.

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@IndexJson on Electronic Load

43m 46s logged

Devlog #01

I started working on the project and well… it’s a lot. The electronic part seems simple, but there is so much more.

Requirements

Before diving deeper intro the project I would like to set some basic requirements:
Max Voltage: 60V
Max Current: 50A
Max Power: 2kW

Architecture

I decided to split it into a few boards. To handle power up to 2kW I need to be very careful about it. There will be 12 IRFP250N power Mosfets split into 4 separate boards. All will be connected to control board and power management board. You can see schematic of the mosfet board below.

Cooling

And now the most important part. Mosfets can dissipate up to 2kW. That’s a lot. And I mean a LOT. My electric space heater has the same power rating. If cooling isn’t done properly the device will fry. That’s why I decided to use water cooling. The idea is to slap one of those big AIOs like in PCs to a copper block and mount 12 transistors onto the block. This way the heat will be quickly transferred away from the mosfets and with help of a few powerful server fans it should be good enough. (Well not for my ears, but I’ll accept it I guess)

Anyway, everything starts coming together. I will soon start designing control circuitry. It all looks quite nice and I am excited to continue this project!

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